Although prenatal and neonatal intensive care in recent years improved survival of infants, the risk of cerebral palsy (CP) in infants with perinatal asphyxia persisted. Screening criteria for risk factors of cerebral palsy and delayed development (DD) in term infants with perinatal asphyxia are required so that early diagnosis and rehabilitation and physical therapy could decrease the neurologic complications and maximize quality of life. To identify the risk factors of CP and DD in infants with perinatal asphyxia, we undertook a case-control study of 25 infants with perinatal asphyxia (5 min Apgar score below 6). At one year follow-up, 12 infants developed CP and DD and 13 control infants showed normal development. Risk factors associated with an increased risk of CP and DD were the number of abortion (p=0. 031), history of neonatal seizure (p=0.021), hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (p=0.046), and poor response to resuscitation immediately after birth (p=0.017). In term infants with perinatal asphyxia, the risk factors of CP and DD were increased number of abortion, history of neonatal seizure, and hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy and poor response to resuscutation. Thus infants with these risk factors should be carefully followed up after hospital discharge and further extensive and prospective study in term infants with perinatal asphyxia could elucidate possible mechanisms related to cerebral palsy and delayed development.
Apgar Score ; Asphyxia* ; Case-Control Studies ; Cerebral Palsy* ; Early Diagnosis ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Hypoxia-Ischemia, Brain ; Infant* ; Infant, Newborn ; Intensive Care, Neonatal ; Mass Screening ; Parturition ; Quality of Life ; Rehabilitation ; Resuscitation ; Risk Factors* ; Seizures

No abstract available.
Child* ; Humans

BACKGROUND: Lung carcinogenesis is a multistage process involving alterations in multiple genes and diverse pathway. Mutational activation of oncogenes and inactivation of tumor suppressor genes, and subsequent increased genetic instability are the major genetic events. The p53 gene and FHIT gene as tumor suppressor genes contribute to the pathogenesis of lung cancer, evidenced by mutation, microsatellite instability(MI) and loss of heterozygosity(LOH). METHODS: We analysed genetic mutations of p53 and FHIT gene in 29 surgical specimens of nonsmall cell lung cancer using PCR-single strand conformation polymorphism, DNA sequencing and RT-PCR. MI and LOH were analyzed in loci of D3S1285, D9S171, and TP53. RESULTS: In 2 cases, point mutation of p53 gene was observed on exon 5. MI of 3 times and LOH of 14 times were observed in at least one locus. In terms of the location on microsatellite, D3S1285 as a marker of FHIT was observed in 5 cases out of 26 specimens;D9S171 as a marker of p16 in 5 out of 17;and TP53 as a marker of p53 in 7 out of 27. In view of histologic type, squamous cell carcinoma presented higher frequency of microsatellite alteration, compared to others. Mutation of FHIT gene was observed in 11 cases and 6 cases of those were point mutation as a silent substitution on exon 8. FHIT mRNA expression exhibited deletion on exon 6 to 9 in 4 cases among 15 specimens, presenting beta-actin normally. CONCLUSION: Our results show comparable frequency of genetic alteration in nonsmall cell lung cancer to previous studies of Western countries. Microsatellite analysis might have a role as a tumor marker especially in squamous cell carcinoma. Understanding molecular abnormalities involved in the pathogenesis could potentially lead to prevention, earlier diagnosis and the development of novel investigational approaches to the treatment of lung cancer.
Actins ; Carcinogenesis ; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung* ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Diagnosis ; Exons ; Genes, p53 ; Genes, Tumor Suppressor* ; Loss of Heterozygosity ; Lung ; Lung Neoplasms ; Microsatellite Instability ; Microsatellite Repeats* ; Oncogenes ; Point Mutation ; RNA, Messenger ; Sequence Analysis, DNA

No abstract available.
Brain Stem* ; Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem* ; Humans ; Infant*

No abstract available.
Biofeedback, Psychology* ; Humans ; Meningomyelocele*

No abstract available.
Cerebral Palsy* ; Early Diagnosis* ; Neurologic Examination*

No abstract available.

No abstract available.
Brain* ; Cerebral Palsy* ; Electroencephalography* ; Evoked Potentials*

BACKGROUND: Bronchial asthma is classically defined as a reversible obstruction and hypsrresponsiveness of the airway attributed to an inflammatory process. However, some individuals with asthma show an irreversible component of airflow obstruction. It may be associated with structural changes in the airway resulting from severe or long standing air- way inflammation and remodelling. OBJECTIVE: The study was undertaken to compare the clinical characteristics of patient and airway remodelling as shown in bronchial wall thickness in HRCT according to the duration of asthma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective clinical study was done on 119 patients with bronchial asthma, who had been admitted to Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital. Patients were divided to three groups according to disease duration and, clinical characteristics, pulmonary function test and HRCT were done. RESULTS: Basal FEV, and FVC was significantly lower in patient with longer duration. (p<0. 05) However pulmonary function was improved regardless of disease duration after 2 weeks steroid and bronchodilator therapy, and there was no significant difference in level changes according to the disease duration. The inner diameter of the bronchi and thickness of the bronchial wall at segmental and subsegmental bronchi increased significantly in patient with longer duration of asthma(p<0.05). Conclusion: These findings showed that airway remodelling was more extensive in patients with longer duration of disease resulting in decreased pulmonary function. These facts suggested that early anti-inflammatory therapy would be helpful for prevention of airway remodelling.
Airway Remodeling* ; Asthma* ; Bronchi ; Female ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Respiratory Function Tests ; Retrospective Studies

OBJECTIVE: The present study was conducted to evaluate the viability of germ cells form the adult and fetal ovarian tissues after vitrification followed by xenografting. METHOD: The human adult ovarian tissues were obtained from 33 years old patients, and the fetal ovarian tissues were obtained from 22 weeks and 25 weeks in gestation. ovarian tissues were cryopreserved by vitrification with 5.5 M ethylene glycol (EG 5.5) and 1.0 M sucrose as cryoprotectants. Adult and fetal ovarian tissues were pre-equilivrated with EG 5.5 at room temperature for 10 and 5 minutes, respectively and plunged into liquid nitrogen immediately. Frozen-thawed tissues were xenografted into NOD-SCID mice to evaluated the viability and capacity for further growth of the primordial follicles. Grafts were recovered from the recipients 4 weeks after transplantation and histological analysis was accomplished. RESULT AND CONCLUSION: Grafts recovered 4 weeks after transplantation contained less number of oocytes and primordial follicles compared to that of the fresh tissues. Survived follicles were mainly primordial and intermediary with larger diameter and more granulosa cells. It is confirmed that 1) the ovarian tissues were healthy and the germ cells were survived after vitrification, and 2) the survived fetal primordial follicles after vitrification resumed the growth in the xenofrafts.
Adult ; Animals* ; Ethylene Glycol ; Female ; Germ Cells ; Granulosa Cells ; Heterografts* ; Humans* ; Mice ; Nitrogen ; Oocytes ; Pregnancy ; Sucrose ; Transplantation, Heterologous* ; Transplants ; Vitrification